In 2023, the proposed budget includes an allocation for non-labor items Thurston Conservation Urban Agriculture program, Police Auditor program, Youth Council funding, and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion training.īeMiller said the first public hearing intends to provide a forum for residents and community members to share their thoughts on the budget. "For the general fund piece of these, they are backed either in whole or largely by new revenues," he said. The city also proposed at least 11 full-time positions in other items. "This is about $2.3 million in general fund and $3 million citywide impact total."īeginning in January 2023, BeMiller said the city would fund two new full-time housing and climate programs positions. The city proposed a 5% wage increase for all employees.
In the 2023 budget, BeMiller said the city is maintaining all current programs, and there would be no reductions in the budget of what they did in 2022. "Focus the money on clearly more important items to the public."ĭuring the public hearing, Olympia Finance Director Aaron BeMiller gave a short presentation of the 2023 operating budget. She encouraged the city to defer the proposed wayfinding and instead refer to the old plan to avoid unnecessary expenditures. The former council member also criticized the city's inclusion of the Wayfinding master plan in the budget, saying there was already a wayfinding plan in the mid-2000s, resulting in downtown utility boxes with maps. Messmer is the only community member who spoke at the city council when it opened the first public hearing for the 2023 preliminary budget on Tuesday, October 18. “My thoughts here is that we're doing something about climate because we have several staff people is not the effort that needs to be made," Messmer added. “This means aiming existing staff priorities at reducing emissions in addition to having climate staff.” "Since motorized transportation is a large part of our community emissions, we need even more focus on reducing driving and supporting active transportation,” Messmer said. Former Olympia council member Karen Messmer expressed support for the plans to put city staff members for climate work but said additional staff in the Climate Program is not the only effort the community needs to reduce gas emissions.
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